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Robert Huddleston

An American soldier with a captured Heinkel He 162 Volksjager in 1945. Credit: Wiki Commons.In late spring of 1945, the conflict in Europe ended, not with a whimper but a bang. On April 30, Adolf Hitler put the barrel of a gun to his right temple and pulled the trigger. VE-day, May 8, 1945 soon followed as the Nazis agreed to an "unconditional surrender."

Editor's Note: On the tenth anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia re-entry disaster, Robert Huddleston, a NASA engineer in the 1960s, explains how NASA's top-heavy, mixture-of-public-and-private culture, so problematic during the shuttle program and a contributing factor to both the Columbia and Challenger disasters, dates back to the beginning of the agency.Related LinksHNN Hot Topics: Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster NASA brass meet with President Kennedy in 1961. Photo via Wiki Commons.